Enrique Laguerre (1906–2005)

Laguerre is considered one of the master authors of Puerto Rican literature. Some of his works are required reading in Puerto Rican schools. At one point, there was even a campaign to advocate for him receiving the Nobel in Literature. I read the book in graduate school for a Spanish American lit. class. I was writing a paper exploring the mythological elements in the novel. The book follows the life of Porfirio Uribe, a man in New York who just completed his law degree and gets accused of murder just for being a witness and a Puerto Rican. He is eventually cleared of the charge. During the novel, the urban setting is represented as a labyrinth, which was the symbol I was exploring for my essay. Uribe travels on to the Dominican Republic, getting involved with the dictatorship. From there, he has to choose whether to join a conspiracy against the dictator or not.

I just give it two stars since it is not the type of book I usually read, but it is a good example of Puerto Rican literature.… (mer)